Overpoured
by Andi Mack
Summary: An encounter with Solid Snake turns civilian Olivia Steele's life upside down. In all the wrong ways. An account of alternate events leading up to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
1. Overpoured

I hope you enjoy the story even though the site keeps butchering the format. Argh. Check my profile for a link to a site with a neater looking version of this.

* * *

**"Overpoured"**

Olivia Steele cleaned her glasses with the tail of her shirt hoping that somehow the clean lenses would change the information on the computer screen in front of her.

It didn't.

She slumped back in the chair and let out a breath that pretty much summed up how she was starting to feel about the whole situation she had gotten herself into. She had been staring at the computer screen for the better part of her afternoon hitting nothing but dead ends. Suddenly remembering her "situation" had been unconscious for the past forty-five minutes, she rose from the chair, thankful for any small break.

When she entered the room, she realized he was in the exact position he had been in 10 minutes ago. Not a stir. Not even a muscle spasm. Now she began to worry. She checked his pulse once again.

Normal.

While checking his forehead for any abnormal spikes in his body temperature, she eyed the chains of dog tags around his neck, something she had missed when she first searched him for ID. She fished them from out of his collar and checked them. Blank.

"No ID. Blank tags. You're practically a ghost." She ran her hand over the material of his suit once more. It was like nothing she had ever seen or touched before. A high tech material that seemed to be the happy medium between rubber and a strong plastic.

"I don't know of a single branch of the military that issues suits like this." Instantly, she felt as if she had answered her own question, "Unless you're not military at all."

It didn't take Olivia long to get closer to finding the identity of her mystery guy with her newly narrowed search. With the answers staring her in the face, her good deed no longer seemed like a good idea.

She frantically ran down the hall, past her "situation", into her room closing and locking the door behind her. She desperately opened the drawer next to her bed.

"What in the hell have I gotten myself into?"

* * *

The mystery man in the dark suit finally began to stir. His blue eyes slowly opened and searched for something to focus his blurred vision on.

"What the –"

"Who are you!?"

"Somehow, I think I should be the one asking the questions."

"Answer me!" Olivia moved the .45 from his chest to his head to punctuate it. With her medium stature and soft facial features neatly framed by black, rectangular glasses she didn't look like she should have ever handled a gun before. But from her confidence with it, he knew it wasn't her first time. Still, this didn't faze him. He could think of much worst things than having a gun pointed at him by an attractive woman.

"Don't move!" She growled when he stood up.

"Where am I?"

"I've shot this thing before and I'm not afraid to let it be at a person this time," she cursed at herself quietly for being so honest.

"I don't doubt that."

His overall coolness about having a gun pointed at his head scared her more than his identity.

"You look just like him. I bet you go over pretty well in look-a-like contests."

"What are you talking about?"

"You must be the worst kind of sicko to go around impersonating Solid Snake." As she stared more intensely at him, it triggered a strange sense that this wasn't an impostor at all, "Are you…are you Solid Snake?"

"I've been called that."

All the blood in her face quickly rushed from it. The gun suddenly felt like a weight as her arms struggled to keep it straight at pointed at him.

"But you're dead. You died on the U.S.S Discovery…right after you sank it!"

"I didn't sink that Tanker! I was framed. Used—"

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"No. I don't." Suddenly, he didn't feel like a threat anymore. He felt like a sad man who had suddenly been reminded of his sins even if that was one of the ones he didn't commit. As he sat back on the bed, she followed him with the gun. She noticed him eye his equipment and weapons across the room which she had stupidly left in reaching distance of him from when she stripped him of them earlier while he was unconscious. Surprisingly, the abundance in weaponry he had didn't scare her from bringing him back to her house. After a moment, she angrily ripped the gun out of the air and out of his direction.

"Damnit!"

"Now, it's time to get some of my questions answered." He looked at her in time to see her holster the gun in the back pocket of her jeans, "Where am I?"

"You're at my house. My name's Olivia Steele and I brought you here."

"By yourself? I must have guns that weigh more than you. And not to mention my other equipment…"

"I manage. I found you out in the woods area that's about three miles from here."

Snake hadn't realized her hair was pulled back until she took that moment to take it down and let it messily fall over her shoulders and face.

"The woods?"

"Yep. There was an explosion there about four hours ago and I just happened to be in the neighborhood. I don't suppose you had anything to do with that."

"I don't even remember the explosion."

"Well, you _were_ out cold and you might have gotten yourself eaten too. There are bears here in Canada, ya know," she said matter-of-factly.

"Well, thanks for everything but, I really need to get going."

Olivia stood back as Snake crossed the room and began reattaching all of the belts and weapon holsters of his equipment. She started to protest but instead crossed her arms in front of her and bit her bottom lip to keep her comments from making their way into the air. She didn't figure him to be one that would listen anyway.

He stopped suddenly on his way to the door. She didn't have to even look at his pale face to instinctively reach out to steady him.

"You should probably take it easy," Snake couldn't believe that the same eyes that had painted him as a bull's eye ten minutes before radiated such concern now. She sat him back down on the bed. "You probably have a slight concussion, Snake."

"I'm fine," He attempted to get up but Olivia immediately pushed him back down into sitting position.

"First thing in the morning, you can do whatever you like but wisest thing for you to do right now though is just stay here. You won't be good for anything like this."

"It might not be good for you if I stay here."

"It's safe here. There's no one for miles around and it'll only be for a few hours," Proudly, she added, "This place barely shows up on the map."

Snake certainly didn't agree but he didn't feel he had it in him to protest it either.

"I need assurance you're not going anywhere."

Her tone said that she wanted his equipment since she knew it was the one thing he wouldn't leave without. Reluctantly, he handed it over to her.

"Good. It'll be a while before dinner's ready. There's some clothes over there," she said and nodded toward a chest of drawers in a corner of the room he hadn't bothered to notice before then, "and a bathroom across the hallway if you want to clean up."

She headed towards the door, putting his equipment over her shoulder before reaching for the knob.

"Why are you helping me?"

She turned back to Snake who was visually burning a hole in a spot on the floor.

"You sure do ask a lot of questions for a trained killer."

He looked up just in time to see the handle of her gun go out of the room followed by the door closing.

* * *

Snake didn't know why he had put on the clothes. At first, it was because he thought that maybe his suit, even without the weapons, felt a little threatening. Then he realized that maybe the reason was more for him. It was the first thing he had worn in a long time that didn't have the lingering aroma of blood in it.

While entering the living room, he was immediately drawn to a mantle piece above an already roaring fire in the fireplace. He automatically picked up the picture of Olivia in a wedding dress. She was happy looking deeply into the eyes of the blonde man marrying her in a Marine uniform. He tried to recall seeing a wedding ring but then quickly realized the only time he had seen her hands was when they were wrapped around a gun ready to shoot him.

From the doorway of the kitchen, he watched Olivia eye two bottles of wine, finally choosing the one she wanted by placing the other one back into a bare wine rack under the cabinets. Becoming aware of his presence, she turned around to him.

"They fit perfectly."

"It's been a while since I've seen myself in civilian clothing."

"You fill them well."

Before she could stop herself, she was smoothing over the shoulders of the black t-shirt Snake was wearing with her hands, slowly moving down to his chest. Suddenly, she stopped and backed away.

"I'm sorry." She said and quickly grabbed the wine off the counter. She seriously considered how many glasses of wine it would take before she could forget that happened. Before he could say anything, she added, "The dining room is this way."

It didn't bother her as it usually did that while pouring herself a glass of wine she had slightly gone over the amount she meant to. She made her way to Snake's side of the table and began to pour.

No ring.

"Wine with a concussion?"

"_Slight_ concussion," she reminded him, "I'm sure you'll live. Besides, I don't like to drink alone." When she stopped, she noticed she had slightly over poured for him as well. Looking at him from across the table, she remembered how long it had been since she'd seen the seat across from her filled with another body and plate of food.

"So, do you always bring complete strangers into your house?"

The question didn't catch her as off guard as Snake had maybe intended it to.

"Uh, no. I can't say it's exactly something I practice."

"Then why start now…and with me?"

She wasn't sure what he was trying to accuse her of in his tone but it sent a slight wave of anger over her.

"I saw that you were hurt and I wanted to help. Is that so strange?"

"You could have taken me to a hospital--"

"Are you always this ungrateful?!" she snapped at him. She became a little more thankful for over pouring as she took a long sip of wine and set the glass back down hard on the table.

"I just don't have a lot of reasons to trust people."

It was then that she realized that Snake, though clearly in his early forties, was developing lines in places on his face that shouldn't see them for years. And though his hair was still mostly dark brown, she could see it wouldn't be long before it would gray completely. She imagined that at one point, his eyes might have been a brilliant blue but now, they were barely even blue. Ironically, a life of war and killing was aging him at an abnormally fast rate and slowly draining the life from him.

She softened her tone.

"The truth is, I don't know why I brought you back here. I guess it was impulse. It didn't once cross my mind to take you to a hospital."

"I hate hospitals anyway." It sounded more like "thank you" and Olivia smiled at him though he wasn't looking at her.

"You seem to know what you're talking about when it comes to the medical stuff."

"I used to be a nurse. I haven't practiced in about five years since I moved here from Virginia though." She apparently hadn't thought about it either since the number of years that had passed surprised even her.

"You're a long way from home."

"Yeah. I was born while my parents were on vacation here. I never even thought about visiting this place until five years ago when I decided I needed a change of scenery. So, I packed up and decided to take advantage of my accidental dual citizenship and make the move. It didn't take me long to fall in love with this place."

"You must have planned on never seeing another person again."

"I wouldn't say that but I do enjoy the seclusion this place gives me."

"I lived holed up in Alaska for a few years. Seclusion can really take its toll on you," then he added, "but I have to admit, my admission into seclusion wasn't quite this nice."

He was referring to Olivia's house, which to him seemed a little big for even three people to regularly live in.

"I know it's a little big for one person," she said feeling she had read his mind, "but it's pretty easy to keep clean and the space certainly doesn't go to waste."

"One person? Your husband, is he…"

Snake immediately regretted everything he had said after "person". And after watching Olivia quietly leave the table, he regretted saying even that.

* * *

The moon was an angry paint that turned everything it splashed on a pale gray. Olivia looked out over the flat, endless land in front of her, which in the day was perfectly green. A few tress strategically sprinkled over it gave it some texture. She didn't move when she heard the door open and Snake step out onto the porch with her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's not your fault. I'm just way too over sensitive to it all still."

"He was a Marine."

"Lived and died as one."

"Was he on the U.S.S. Discovery?"

"No, he died a year before that," she let out a huge sigh, "_He_ was the reason I couldn't go back to nursing. _He_ was the reason I felt I had to get so far away. "

"It must be hard for you." It was now Olivia who was surprised by the concern Snake showed.

"Probably harder than it should be by now since it was about six years ago. It didn't even take me this long to get over my parents' death."

"There's no time limit on how much or how long you're allowed to miss someone once they're gone."

"On our first date, do you know where Evan took me? A shooting range. He showed me how to shoot his .45. I probably shouldn't have accepted that second date, huh?"

Snake began to pat his body in the place his cigarettes were on his suit. Olivia recognized that pat.

"That is a smoker's pat." She produced an unopened pack of cigarettes from her side pocket. They weren't his brand but he wasn't one to complain. As she handed him one, he looked at her fingernails.

"You don't smoke."

"Not anymore. I smoked my last one about eight months ago. Life's too short to spend it looking for a light."

"Good luck pack?"

"Not really. I found these yesterday while I was cleaning up and I couldn't bring myself to throw them away for some reason."

He didn't question why she also had a lighter as she handed it to him.

"Have you ever loved someone, Snake?"

"No," he answered immediately, perhaps out of habit, but then said, "well, there was someone but, that was a long time ago."

"I can only hope that you didn't do something foolish like I did and give them the most important parts of yourself so that when they go, they can take it with them."

Snake took a long drag and let it out slowly.

"No, nothing like that."

"Good."

The hum of an electronic device caused him to turn his attention to a security camera sitting on the side of the porch in the grass.

"Security cameras?"

"State of the art. They're all over the property. I can see everything that happens from the comfort of my computer chair. No one ever comes around here but, I can identify any raccoon in this area if I ever need to."

"You can never be too cautious."

"That…and I was bored."

"Bored?"

"Yeah. I rigged them myself. I had to do something with my hands after I stopped smoking and knitting just wasn't an option."

* * *

Snake threw another log into the fire and watched the flames lick it up before sitting back into a chair.

"You know, if you actually said half of what you thought about you probably wouldn't have time to ask all those questions."

Olivia tried to calculate how many miles away Snake was as he stared off into the fire.

"Not a whole lot of people have ever been interested in what I have to say."

"I am."

"Well, it's not like I've lived a life I'm anxious to talk about either."

"I know it hasn't all been good but surely it hasn't been all bad. You did say earlier that there was someone you loved."

"It was years ago."

"What was her name?"

"It's not important."

"Do you regret it?"

Snake thought a moment and, without removing his gaze from the fire to look at her, answered.

"I don't regret it. I just wish it could have been…different."

"Oh," She wasn't satisfied with that but felt it would be wrong to pry anymore than she already had, "Do you have any friends?"

"Not really."

"Family?"

"There was a man that once called himself my father."

"Big Boss."

This caused Snake to look up at her. Olivia shifted in her seat, pulling her legs under her like a bow.

"You read Nastasha's book?"

"No, but a few years ago for fun I did get to audit the class they teach at the local university about the events of Shadow Moses. It was only for a day, though."

She watched him get up and walk across the room to a window that the moonlight poured especially brightly in from. She followed behind him.

"So, you're all alone," He was quiet for so long that she didn't expect him to respond, "I'm making you uncomfortable. I'm sorry."

Olivia grabbed the wine they'd opened earlier off the living room table and poured her self another glass. She saw it as a way to gag her self from asking any more questions. Before she could take her first sip from it, Snake gently lifted it from her hand and sat it down on the table.

"I could say the same about you."

"Huh?"

"Being alone."

"Oh, I guess you could. Looks like we have more in common than either one of us thought."

"I guess so. Including that," he motioned to the wine, "You shouldn't drink that stuff when you're upset."

Olivia was thankful to get the chance to change the subject.

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Better. I need to contact Otacon though. The think the batteries in my nanomachines ran out."

"Nanomachines?"

"It's like a space age walkie talkie. My partner, Otacon, could probably tell you more about it."

"Space age walkie talkie, huh?" Snake could almost hear the gears in Olivia's head beginning to turn. She continued, "If that's the case, I may be able to patch your nanomachines through my computer. Not only would you be able to contact Otacon but you'd be able to recharge it too."

"You can do that?"

"I'm pretty sure of it. It sounds complicated but really, it's not. Just a matter of finding a common frequency between them."

Of all the things Snake was, technological was not one of them.

"Don't worry, Snake," she said when she caught a hint of confusion on his face, "All you have to do is sit there and look handsome."

* * *

Olivia had been working for only thirty minutes before she typed the last command line and waited for confirmation. It was first time all day she didn't mind watching the computer screen for results.

"That should do it."

Olivia got up so that Snake could sit down in front of the computer, "All you have to do is punch in his frequency." Snake did so and it began to connect.

"How did you learn so much about computers?"

"What else better is there to do out here than learn to get into things I'm not supposed to?"

"So, you're a hacker"?

"I'm not a very good one," she admitted, "But I don't like the word 'hacker'. I like to think of myself as a 'digital security bypasser'."

The transmission connected and Otacon appeared on the screen. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and peered squinted his eyes at the fuzzy transmission on his end.

"Snake, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Snake! Where have you been? I feared the worst had happened. After that explosion, your nanos stopped functioning."

"I'm fine. A little beat up but I'll live. I might have been a lot worse off had it not been for Olivia."

"Olivia?"

She stepped into view of the transmission to let Otacon see her.

"Oh! Hi. Sorry about that. I'm Otacon. It's nice to meet you."

"You, too," Olivia couldn't help but think that Otacon was adorable. He possessed a boyish charm that she didn't expect from someone Snake had chosen as a partner to save the world with. His white lab coat almost made him feel like a kid playing a scientist and gave no notion that he was a real one.

"She's also the one responsible for doing…whatever she did with my nanomachines."

"What he means," Olivia corrected him, "is finding the same frequency on the computer that the nanos have and patching it through."

"Letting the computer act as a monitor almost all while recharging the battery. That's pretty impressive," Otacon's tone suddenly turned serious as he talked to Snake, "We've got a whole new mess on our hands. That explosion earlier was only the tip of the iceberg. I'll give you all the details in person. I can be where you are in about an hour and a half. Is there any place to land around there?"

"Somehow I don't think you're going to have too much trouble finding one. I can leave first thing tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning? Why?"

Snake glanced at Olivia before responding, "Doctor's orders."

Otacon prepared himself to disagree with Snake, but stopped.

"Well, that would give me time to finish up what I'm working on here. Okay, first thing tomorrow morning. No later than that, Snake."

"Got it."

When the transmission closed, Olivia leaned back on the computer desk next to Snake and crossed her arms in front of her.

"Doctor's orders, eh? Well, my next order is that you try and use this time to get a few hours of rest. Sounds like you're not going to have the opportunity once you get back."

"You're probably right. Just promise me there won't be any surprises when I wake up this time."

Olivia laughed a bit but agreed, "Alright, Snake. No surprises. I promise."

* * *

Olivia hadn't actually looked at the picture of her and Evan on their wedding day in almost a year. And though she passed by it every day on the mantle, she hardly remembered what it looked like. When she didn't look at it, she got to pretend he was just away and would be back soon. She ran her hand over Evan as she held the picture and took a deep breath. When Snake entered the room, she flipped it over beside her on the sofa. She smiled discreetly when she saw him back in this regular attire.

"Well, that certainly does look more like you. I'll go and get the rest of your things."

When she returned to the room with his equipment, she found Snake just picking up the picture she had turned over.

"Are you going to be okay?" He asked her after realizing what it was.

She slide the frame out of his hands, putting it back it its place on the mantle.

"I'll manage."

She handed him his equipment and watched him for a moment before turning to look out of the window. The first lights of dawn came pouring in much like the moonlight had a few hours before.

"There's still something about you I don't get."

"And what's that, Snake?"

"Why didn't you shoot me?"

"You know, sometimes a simple 'thank you' will suffice," she half-joked with him.

"Believe me, I'm grateful. But why didn't you? It's not like I gave you a real reason not to."

"I quickly realized you weren't the person the Internet and media had painted you out to be. You could have taken me out a hundred different ways with or without weapons when I was holding that gun to you…but you didn't. To me, that's certainly not the actions of a cold hearted, environmental terrorist."

The sound of an aircraft caused both of them to go outside just in time to see it stop to hover near the ground.

"Call me, Snake, if you need anything."

"I'll call if I'm feeling lonely."

"Snake…", she couldn't help but laugh even though she tried to not appear amused.

"I will. I expect you to do the same," For the first time since she'd met him, he looked her directly in the eyes when he spoke to her, "Take care of yourself, Olivia."

She watched from her porch from the time Snake got aboard the aircraft to the time it was out of sight.

"You, too Snake."

* * *

Calls from Otacon first thing in the morning were never good and Snake knew this as he woke to the sound of his Codec ringing.

"Snake, when's the last time you talked to Olivia?" Otacon talked like someone who had been up for hours. He was also no good at hiding bad news before he could give it.

"Two days ago. She's well on her way to becoming a first class hacker thanks to your virtual lessons."

"That means this was recent…"

"Otacon, what's going on?"

"I got a message this morning from an unknown sender. There was a video attached and I'm afraid it's not pretty."

"Did something happen to Olivia?"

Otacon didn't answer but it really didn't matter. Snake knew it already, "Send it to me."

"I don't know if I should."

"Please…"

A moment later, Snake heard the chime of his computer when the video from Otacon arrived in his inbox. He finished a cigarette before sitting in the chair and clicking on it.

A video screen opened up immediately and a few seconds of static stared Snake in the face. Finally, Olivia appeared.

Her glasses had been removed and she was bound with her hands behind her back to a chair. The fireplace in her living room was behind her and had a fire strongly going in it. The sounds of other people and their shadows were clearly visible and audible. Her face was bruised and beaten but her demeanor was surprisingly calm and collected. The sound of footsteps with the clinking of spurs following each one began to approach her and stopped right before the view of the camera.

"You're a pretty tough woman to track down," the voice was chilling and deep with slight wit to it.

"Who are you?"

"Let's just I'm a friend of a friend."

"What do you want from me?"

"You seem to know where our friend is."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Where is he, Olivia. Where is Solid Snake?!"

"I already told you, I don't know."

"You're going to make this so much harder on yourself by lying."

Just then, a man dressed in a BDU came into the view of the camera. He had a shovel used for Olivia's fireplace that he pressed against her face. It's obvious from its bright red color it had been sitting in a flame and was probably branding temperature when it touched her. She tried to stiff back a cry but, it was too painful and she let it out. The solider brought it back and connected hard with the side of her head. She appeared to be knocked out.

"He really can't be worth all of this," the male voice continued when she began to stir.

"You sure wouldn't know what it's like to be worth anything."

"You lived a pretty normal life before all of this, Olivia," he continued as if he didn't hear her, "What I'm trying to figure out is why someone like you would risk it all for Solid Snake."

Olivia didn't satisfy him with a response.

"Not talking, huh? It looks like we're going to be here for a while."

"If that's the case, you could at least untie my hands."

"That's a pretty tall order. I don't know if I can do that."

"What am I going to do? I'm clearly outnumbered by you and your goons and I have no false realities about being a one woman army right now."

After a bit of thought, he responded.

"Untie her."

Another man in a BDU quickly untied her and stepped from out of frame again.

"You're pretty feisty. You remind me of another woman Snake wasn't able to protect."

Olivia rubbed her wrists for a moment then lightly touched the side of her face and flinched in pain.

"I'm going to find Snake either way," the voice taunted to her, "and when I do, I'm going to send a bullet straight through him with your name on it."

"Go to hell!" Her words were angry and full of venom.

A quickly drawn revolver barely appeared in frame of the camera before it, without hesitation, sent a bullet into her left leg. Olivia let out a piercing cry and doubled over in the chair in pain, grabbing her leg.

"You're proving to be a lot more fun than I thought you'd be, Ms. Steele."

"You…bastard!" She hissed at him through clinched teeth. After a moment, she sat up in the chair, returning back to her composed and calm state.

"You're not protecting him by not talking, you know."

"I'll take every bullet in that gun before I tell you anything!"

He laughed as if he liked the idea, "That can be arranged."

Olivia reached into her pocket and produced a pack of cigarettes. Her hands trembled from the pain but her face continued to appear to be undaunted by her situation.

"Smoking's not very good for your health."

"Well, I don't imagine it's too much worst than being shot."

"You think you're clever, don't you?"

"I do what I can." She shot back at him before putting the cigarette in her mouth.

"I don't like clever."

Suddenly, the silver revolver appeared again but at Olivia's head. A quick flash of fear came over her but she quickly covers it.

"Now, I suggest if you have anything to say to me, you do it now."

Olivia patted her pockets a few times before looking up.

"You got a light?"

The gun cocked and Olivia closed her eyes.

Static.

Snake stared vacantly at the computer screen feeling the most powerless he had felt in a long time. When his Codec rang, he immediately silenced it. He found the nearest wall and leaned against it, the last image of Olivia in the video playing over and over again in his head.

"I'm sorry, Olivia."

Saying it aloud didn't make a difference. He knew she'd never get to hear it.

He thought of all the things Olivia would say to him knowing that none of it would be a single word of blame for what happened. Maybe it should have brought him some sort of comfort but it didn't. It only made him angrier with himself. When his Codec began to ring again, he didn't bother to silence it. There was another sin he had to answer for. And for it, he was more than ready.


	2. Scar Tissue

"**Scar Tissue"**

Otacon greeted me from behind a cup of coffee, an accessory I was used to seeing him with by now. I took a moment to notice the clock on one of the computers.

3:17AM.

He quickly caught my look of disgust.

"You know you wouldn't be here this early if it wasn't important."

"I know. So, what's up?"

"Ocelot's been lying pretty low for the past ten months ever since...well," He looked at me to let me finish the rest in my own head.

"Yeah."

"It seems he's getting tired of existing under the radar and is working on something big. I'm digging up all I can but I'm just hitting a lot of dead ends right now."

"Wasn't Mei Ling helping you?"

"She helps whenever she can but for the most part, she's busy with her own projects."

He took a stack of papers from the table and moved them to another near by surface for seemingly no apparent reason. I felt an uncomfortable subject coming. I knew the shifting around paper thing was the equivalent to Otacon twiddling his thumbs in nervous anticipation.

"Snake, as you know, your health is getting increasingly worse," he said confirming my observations and straightening up the second stack of papers he had just transferred, "It's getting too hard to continue to ignore, but it's too much for me to handle alone."

While I had come to accept the fate handed to me eight years ago at Shadow Moses by FoxDie, Otacon had not. I hadn't given up, I just couldn't waste whatever time I had left wondering if there was a way to fix it, "That's why I've been working with someone from the outside."

"Otacon, that's not like you."

"I know, but I've never been faced with anything quite like this either."

"Can they be trusted?"

"I'd like to think so."

"Ex-FOXHOUND?"

"Definitely not."

I knew that Otacon was going to continue to talk in circles for as long as I allowed him to.

"Spit it out. Who is this other person?"

"Snake, you have nothing to worry about. I've taken every precaution you can think of and this person checks out."

I nodded about as much as I was convinced.

"Do you ever think about Olivia even though you only met her once?"

It was the first time I had heard her name in months. Ten to be exact. And it reminded me of all the bad feelings that became attached to that name.

"Yes. I do, actually."

"I can tell. I can also tell that you still blame yourself for what happened to her."

I know I grunted at him that same grunt I did when I didn't want to talk about something. But, like usual, it did little else other than convince him that he should continue.

"Otacon--"

"Snake, all I'm saying is that it's completely okay to feel that way. Normal even and--"

"Otacon!" I repeated in a tone that still made Otacon jump slightly even after all these years, "A late night psychoanalysis isn't what you called me here for, is it?"

"No."

He held up a small vial with a clear liquid in and waited for me to ask about it before offering up any information.

"It's an inhibitor and it should regulate your body's aging. That's what we're hoping will happen anyway."

"I suppose you're going to inject me with that."

"Well, I'm not going to be the one injecting it. It has to go directly into your blood stream and I'm certainly not trained to give an injection like that."

I felt a presence enter the room from the doorway behind me. It was one of the most unsettling I had felt in a long time and nothing about it encouraged me to turn around to see what it was.

"Hi, Snake."

_That voice._

I'd seen a lot of evils in my life and none of them gave me a chill like that voice did.

The figure in the doorway could have been a ghost and by rights, it should have been, "That's not exactly the welcome I was expecting," she joked.

I watched her come towards me, sporting a slight but permanent limp and a scar across her face that felt so familiar, it could have been my own.

This was no ghost. It was Olivia.

Olivia Steele wasn't the first person I had ever watched die, neither was she the only death I had ever been responsible for. She wasn't special to me nor did hers hold anymore value than any other civilian life. She was, however, the closest thing to a decent soul I had crossed in a long time and up until then, I thought she had died because of it. She hadn't thought about what kind of person I might have been outside of the few hours that circumstance had brought us together for. She acted on instinct and I had considered that a major personality flaw from the moment I had met her.

I could hear Otacon talking to me, but the sounds were barely forming in my head as words.

"Snake, do you remember when you told me that you had a bad feeling about Olivia's safety?"

"You told me I was being paranoid."

"Yes, I did," he admitted, "But after I thought about it, I decided it couldn't hurt to check on her. I hacked into her security camera's network but something didn't feel right. So, I asked Raiden to check in on her."

Olivia touched my arm before going past me to stand next to Otacon. I had half expected her hand to pass through me. She looked different and it had nothing to do with her hair being shorter or any other physical change that I noticed.

"His timing couldn't have been better. If Raiden wouldn't have shown up at the moment he did...well, I don't even want to think about where the next bullet out of Ocelot's gun would have ended up in me."

"Where have you been all these months?" I finally managed to choke out between the first drags of my cigarette. She shook her head and looked at me disapprovingly.

"Underground, with the help of Mei Ling. She even wired me with the same nanomachines that you and Hal use."

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner, Snake, but I had to make sure that Olivia was absolutely safe before I said anything," Otacon said.

"So, she's alive because of a well timed call...and luck."

"I'm alive because Hal followed up on a feeling that _you_ had. Besides, you don't believe in luck," Olivia reminded me as if she could recall me ever saying that to her.

"I don't know what I believe anymore."

Olivia passed a subtle look and nod to Otacon that almost seemed rehearsed.

"I have some things to catch up on. I'll be back in a bit," he said, and handed the vial to Olivia.

She watched him leave the room before turning to me.

"Hal's a great guy. He wants to help you more than anything. You're still a hero to him, you know."

"I thought you were dead."

"Well, I'm not. This limp looks pretty sexy when I have high heels on, by the way," she joked when she noticed I had shifted my eyes to every object in the room before letting them rest on her, "I'm sorry about the early morning call but, I wanted to see you. Especially when Hal explained to me what was happening to you."

I could see the scar on her face up close now. It remained elegant to had been so savagely put there. She produced a capped syringe and began drawing liquid from the vial with it and nodded to my right arm.

"The sooner we start this, the sooner it can begin to work."

"You and Otacon created this together?"

"Not exactly. Hal had been working on it for a few months before. He had most of the information he needed, he just didn't know how to go about putting it all together. That's where I came in. Okay, Snake, this may hurt a bit."

The liquid from the syringe felt like sharp, hot pebbles traveling through my veins, "You're arm's going to be sore for a day or two. If it's sore any longer than that, let me know."

"What in the hell did you just give me?"

"I'm sorry. I know it's a bit uncomfortable. Next time, I'll try and make a formula that travels a bit smoother."

I pulled my shirt sleeve back over my arm and tried to ignore the burning sensation that existed under my skin where the needle had been.

"Aside from the soreness and the burning that's probably occurring right now, if you have any other side effects, I need you to let me know. It's very important that you do."

"You mean it gets worse than this?"

"Seriously, Snake, if you experience anything like dizziness, weakness or even a headache, report it back to me or Hal."

"Okay."

She looked at her watch and grabbed a clipboard from a near by table. She rechecked her watch before recording what I guessed was the time and then scribed notes for a few moments.

"Since Hal says that the most change seems to happen every three months, that's when we're going to do the injections," she said finishing the notes, and looked up at me with a smile.

"What?"

"It's just...really good to see you, that's all. I hated not being able to tell you that I was okay for so long."

"Why couldn't you?"

"Well, Hal thought it would be safer if he deleted public records and information about me first before telling anyone what had really happened."

"Deleted information?"

"Yeah. After we torched my house, instead of creating a death certificate, Hal deleted everything that said I ever existed in the first place. Birth certificate, Social security number, even my high school transcript...all in the trash bin on his computer now. Burning the house down was just a quick way to get rid of any personal information I had left in there."

"So you simply just disappeared?"

"Who's gonna notice? The people back in Virginia who I haven't spoken to in six years or my neighbors who lived 2 miles away that I never met? I didn't have any ties. That's what sadly made it so easy."

"What about having a normal life?"

She waved her hand as if the thought was too trivial for her to even consider and laughed, "It's overrated. Besides, my place is with you and Hal now."

"All of this shouldn't have happened to you. What Ocelot did--"

"Is in the past, Snake", she finished, "and it's something that we can't change."

A part of me needed her to be as angry at me about what had happened as I was, but she wasn't budging.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you, Olivia."

I didn't think about how those words would sound outside of my own mind but they pushed their way out into the space between us.

I didn't fight her when she reached up and aligned my eyes with hers or when her hand lingered on the side of my face.

"I never blamed you for what happened. Never," she emphasized it in her eyes as well, "The only thing I want to do is help you. Hal and I know we can't cure the effects of FoxDie right now, but if we can at least slow it down, it'll be a good start. Now, the burning. Is it gone?"

It took me a moment to realize she had switched the focus and then a moment more to realize that the burning had indeed subsided in my arm.

"Yeah, it has actually."

"Good," she jotted a line of text onto the clipboard, "I'll certainly take that as a good start. I need to go and finish up some things with Hal and then possibly try and get some sleep but remember, don't shrug off any abnormal feelings. Let me know immediately."

One more look passed between us before she disappeared around the same corner that Otacon had earlier. I listened to her and Otacon briefly exchange ideas and thoughts a few rooms away before they either stopped or I just tuned them out.

That night, I had a dream about the video. It wasn't the first time, but this time, I heard the gun go off at her head and saw her body fly back from the chair. Olivia laid on the ground but the absence of blood made her look as if she had simply fallen out of it. Her head slowly turned and she mouthed something to me that I couldn't make out.

I woke up with my heart beating at least twice as fast as it should. I spent a few seconds confirming my surroundings and bringing my breathing back to a normal rate.

"Is everything okay?"

When I looked up, I saw Olivia leaning in the doorframe with her arms crossed in front of her.

"I'm fine."

"I wasn't spying on you," she added immediately, something that hadn't had time to cross my mind until she said something, "I was passing by and heard some commotion."

"It was nothing."

"Troubled sleep patterns could be a side effect of the serum. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"It had nothing to do with the serum."

"Snake, it's important that you tell me—"

"The damn serum had nothing to do with it, Olivia."

Her sharp, green eyes burning into me the way they did made me uncomfortable. They cared too much. She lingered in the doorway for a few moments and as if giving up, finally nodded.

"Okay, Snake," she said and I watched the door close behind her.

She looked like she was waiting for something to happen. Like a wall to come down allowing some sort of truth about myself to come spilling out. I knew that dream hadn't come from watching Olivia almost die, but from knowing that I would have to watch again and for real this time.


	3. Sidelines

The room was quiet aside from the occasional digital beeps that emitted from one of the three computers that aligned the gray wall. I had looked over at Hal a few times in the seat next to me, but he was too absorbed in his work to notice. The only time he took his eyes off the computer screen was when blindly reaching out his hand, usually for this cup of coffee, produced nothing.

I pushed my glasses to the top of my head and tried to rub out a few of the 11 hours my eyes had been staring ahead at the computer monitor.

"You should get some rest."

"I'm fine." I lied. I flashed him the most convincing smile I possibly could muster up at 3 AM.

"Come on, Olivia. You've been working just as hard as me for the past few days. I can handle things here for a few hours or so."

"Why don't we both take a break, Hal?"

"I don't know, there's still a lot to do."

"A small one. Fifteen minutes."

I had learned enough about Hal in the past 10 months to know that he wasn't so much a workaholic as he was committed. Committed to stopping the effects of his past mistakes and helping to correct the ones made by others. He was definitely a lot stronger than his thin frame and passive nature made him look.

Without realizing it, my job had became to make sure that he didn't forget the small things--such as eating and sleeping--while he was busy with being committed. It was a job that I, unfortunately, hadn't quite figured out yet.

"Okay," he said and then added, "It'll give us a chance to go over what we're going to do in the next few days once Snake starts his mission."

'Break', in that sense, was clearly a word he didn't feel he ever needed. This didn't surprise me at all.

I propelled my chair over to him, bumping into him to light stop.

"How about we don't talk about that at all? What is the last thing you read that didn't have the words 'Metal' or 'Gear' in it?" I pointed to his computer monitor.

When he looked as if he was going to shoot down my suggestion based on it's new requirements, I repleaded, "Fifteen minutes." He took a deep breath and looked back at the screen to bid farewell to the endless lines of text on it.

"Okay, Olivia. You win."

Well, maybe I was getting better.

The truth was, I didn't feel like I was contributing much at all sitting in front of that computer screen. I had unexpectedly been thrown into all of this with the complete deafness and blindness of the general public. Government conspiracies. Human cloning. It was all I could do to convince myself that this wasn't a piece of fiction writing that my imagination was running away with.

For the past 9 months, I had been fed information exposing the truths of The Big Shell and more shockingly, Shadow Moses and FOXDIE. It was Otacon himself who had delivered some of the most core shattering details, all with the coolness of someone reporting the weather.

"Why do you call me Hal?"

I slid the piece of fruit slowly off the fork into my mouth and tried to figure out whether he thought it was good or bad that I did.

"I'm sorry. Would you rather me call you Otacon?"

"It's alright. I don't mind," he quickly reassured me.

"The first guy I ever kissed was named Hal, ya know. And...it's on your lab coat."

"So, it is." he said after he checked for himself and laughed that cute chuckle that I didn't get to hear enough, "You know, we're going to have to get you one of these."

"Lab coats are for scientists. I'm a charity case that you throw a few documents at to make feel important, at best. We both know the real and only reason I'm here is because I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Well, that's not even kind of true, Olivia." His expression suddenly deepened and those blue eyes of his, usually a little shy, concentrated hard on me, "You being here has taken a good bit of the work load off of me. The fact that you care about Snake's wellbeing just as much as I do is a huge help in itself so, don't sell yourself short."

I hadn't expected a response like that. I had, more likely than not, been only jokingly underestimating my usefulness. But, the fact that he took it so seriously gave me a renewed feeling of importance anyway. I smiled to myself and tucked back a piece of my newly shortened hair behind my ear, revealing the scar that ran along the right side of my face.

"It's okay to look at it," I said when he quickly looked down and took a sudden interest in the wooden table we were sitting at.

"I know..."

"I've lived through much worst you know. Like being rejected by the cheer leading squad in high school. That damn there killed me." What I had really wanted to say was "...like losing my husband and being a widow by the age of 26. _That_ damn there killed me," but I filled in the blanks with something else instead.

"Those Virginia girls must be pretty harsh."

"The harshest," I didn't remember mentioning where I grew up, but knowing Hal, I probably hadn't.

"What was it like growing up there?"

"Uninteresting," when the pre-warning didn't seem to waver his interest, I continued, "Being an only child, my parents were pretty over protective. My first real taste of freedom came in the form of a 1994 Camry when I was 17."

"You don't act like an only child. Not statically speaking, anyway." God forbid I actually told him anything that he couldn't instantly run through a computer and get numbers for.

"I'm not quite sure I know how an only child is suppose to act."

"Well, you're very...free spirited, self-motivated. A lot of only children need to be dependent on someone and pushed to do things."

"So, do I act more like a middle child, then?"

I was happy he laughed with me. There was a small part of me that thought he might actually try and explain it, "Although my childhood probably wouldn't have been as uneventful with a brother or sister."

"Trust me, uneventful can be good."

I wasn't sure what that meant but I had a feeling I wasn't supposed to. The few glimpses into Hal's childhood that I had had in the past few months had felt almost accidental and often dark.

"What about you, Hal? Are you an only child?" The words took on the form of tiny daggers stabbing into him as he searched the air for words.

"No. I had a younger sister named Emma but she died about four years ago during the Big Shell incident." I wondered if the soft background hum of the computers was loud enough to keep him from hearing my heart hit the pit of my stomach for him. That was something he had left out of his original explanation of those events to me. I offered my best in late condolences, which I was no good at even when they were on time.

"You guys must have been close."

"We were going to work on it."

He emptied the contents of his cup as if there wasn't just coffee in there and with a bit of forced chipperness said, "But, enough of that."

"How is the confirmation of the new Metal Gear going?"

"Right on schedule. We should have everything we need before Snake sets out in a few days. How do you feel?"

One look at me while Hal and Snake began discussing 'worst case scenarios' and it was no secret that the whole idea made me feel uneasy.

"Concerned. For Snake."

"Even the great Solid Snake needs a team behind him bitting their nails."

"That, I can do."

"The hardest part is being helpless if something does happen out there."

"What do you do?"

Hal sat back in his chair and treated the question as if it provided him his first chance to think about it himself.

"Hope. Pray if you believe in that sort of stuff, and trust that Snake knows what he's doing."

"But what about his health? What's going to become of him in three months, hell, a year if he keeps aging at the rate he is?" It was the one thing that concerned me the most and, as luck would have it, the one thing Hal nor anyone else knew the answer to.

"I don't know but, it's the reason we've been working so hard to at least try and slow it down."

A chime from one of the computers became the unofficial cue that ended our break and conversation.

"I should probably check that out." He said pushing the chair back under the table.

I soon occupied the seat next to him once again, trying to readjust my eyes to the unforgiving glare of my own computer monitor. Hal continued his work in his hunched position that was accompanied by the blind reach for his fresh cup of coffee. He didn't notice when I reached out and slid the cup towards him until it reached his fingertips.

It was the least I could do.


	4. The Goodbye Song pt 1

"**The Goodbye Song"**

"Otacon, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Snake."

"Where are you and Olivia?"

"Out of harm's way. What's the situation there?"

Snake adjusted his body on the wall, just enough to peek around the corner and count the number of weapons rather than soldiers that outnumbered him.

"This place is crawling with Ocelot's men. Whatever is in that file, they don't want anyone else to know."

"No one knows that better than me. I'm sorry to send you in there but it was the only way I could get into that file." Otacon couldn't remember the last thing he wasn't able to hack, but it annoyed him that this had been one of them.

"It could be worse," Snake reminded his self more than he reminded Otacon, "I'm about to head in. I'll contact you once I'm inside."

"Hey, and be careful!" Olivia said, "We don't want anymore episodes like we had a few days ago. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

The transmission ended and Otacon turned his attention to Olivia beside him.

"I'm sure it was nothing"

"He collapsed, Hal. Your body completely shutting down on you is never just nothing."

"He's probably just exhausted. I don't think he's used to not being able to push himself as hard as he used to."

She adjusted her glasses and gently ran her nails over the smooth surface of the scar on her face.

"I saw him. He hit the ground like a ton of bricks and didn't come around for nearly five minutes. Exhaustion doesn't do that to you. Something is wrong. He shouldn't even be out there right now."

"Well, I'll have the results in a few hours and you'll see that you're just over reacting."

Otacon took another sip of coffee in hopes that it would perk him up to a level slightly higher than the sluggish pace he felt himself existing at.

"What is Snake looking for anyway?"

"The file that contains Ocelot's plans for…whatever he's working on. It's something I normally would have been able to get into from here but, that's some wall of protection he's got around it." Otacon let his head fall back and rest on the back of the chair for a moment. His eyes had been open for so long that they stung a little when he closed them. Even with his eyes shut, he could still feel Olivia's on him.

"What is it?" he asked her without moving from his position.

"When's the last time you slept?"

He thought a moment and raised his head.

"February 2005, right before Shadow Moses."

He laughed a bit to himself as he crossed the room to the sink to pour the disappointing contents of his cup in it. Olivia folded her arms under her breast and spun the chair to face him at the coffee maker.

"I'm serious, Hal. There's no substitution for old fashioned sleep. You look terrible and that stuff", she pointed to his cup just as he had stopped refilling it, "is going to kill you."

"Interestingly enough, that's exactly what Snake says to me right as he's inhaling his completely safe and harmless cocktail of cyanide, arsenic, and formaldehyde. Anyone ever tell you you worry too much?"

"Yes, but he was jacked up on enough caffeine to fuel a small city and extremely delusional from no sleep so, I didn't pay attention to him."

Olivia suddenly wrapped her hands over her left leg, the same spot where a revolver's bullet had entered ten months before, and cringed over in pain. The sight, to Otacon, was a disturbing allusion to the video and left him speechless for a moment.

"Are you okay?" He finally said with a hand on her arm.

"Yeah. It's just some phantom pain."

"Is that normal?"

"I'm sure it's not. This leg hurts, the scar itches. I've been one big malfunction lately."

"Olivia, I've been thinking. Maybe there is a way to remove the bullet without…"

"Me dying," she candidly finished for him. After the pain subsided, she slowly sat back up and took a deep breath and let it out to recenter herself, "We've already been over this. I believe it was called amputation. That's not an option."

"I'm not talking about amputation. I'm talking about a procedure to remove the bullet only. People survive against the odds all the time. I've been doing research," with a few clicks of his computer mouse, several documents spilled out onto the monitor along with a few images and snippets he had saved from bigger articles, "A few of the newer procedures have been pretty successful, too." Olivia took a moment to sift through and scan over the documents.

"Hal, that bullet isn't posing any sort of life and death situation. I've been fine so far. Of course, I haven't tried to walk through airport security yet." The joke, she quickly realized, wasn't the most tasteful she'd ever made and she immediately decided to rematch his seriousness, "Most of these are theories of procedures that have never been officially tested. And the few that have have only been successful at removing smaller objects."

Olivia was happy for the interruption when she heard Snake's voice come over the computer and call for Otacon.

"I'm here, Snake," he responded.

"I'm at the computer that has the files on them."

"That's not bad timing. Is the room secure?"

"Yeah, but I probably shouldn't spend any more time than I need to in here."

"Of course. Do you have the disc?"

"Yeah", he fished the disc out of his equipment and inserted it into the slot and it ate it from his hand, "What is this supposed to do anyway?"

Otacon lit up at the chance to talk about something he created even at the risk of Snake not having the same appreciation for it.

"Well, it's a program that is, more or less, a virus. What it does is search for the most highly protected files on the computer and breaks whatever passwords or security walls it might have. And it's pretty fast, too. So, it's almost better than having me there to do it."

The disc did exactly what he had programmed it to do and presented a soft chime when it finished that both Otacon and Olivia heard.

"I guess that means it worked," Otacon said, pleased with his work.

"Oh, it worked alright."

"And…"

"And," Snake mocked, "If what Ocelot has planned actually works, we're gonna miss the days of battling a few mass produced Metal Gear units."

"What do you mean?" Otacon was almost afraid to ask.

"I'm saving the file now. You'll see it all when I get back."

The disc popped out into Snake's open hand.

"Snake, you have not aged well."

He didn't have to turn around to know whom the voice behind him belonged to. It was a confrontation that he had almost expected to happen. He slowly faced Ocelot just as he holstered one his revolvers back on his hip. Olivia and Otacon listened in silence to what was being relayed to them through Snake's nanomachines.

"I can't say that I'm surprised to see you here, Snake."

Snake casually put the disc away and in plain view of Ocelot.

"I guess nothing gets past you."

"I am surprised, however, at how fast that virus you just put into the system took effect. Looks like reprogramming the virus twice really paid off."

Otacon and Olivia's expressions quickly matched each other's.

"What does that mean?" Instead of answering Olivia, he punched in a few keys on the keyboard in front of him.

"I don't understand this. Every operation from these computers are secure. There's no way he could know that."

"But it doesn't matter," Ocelot continued on, the spurs on his boots clinking with every step, a sound Olivia had, until then, successfully forgotten about, "because like usual, you're too late."

"I think I'll be the judge of that." Snake's hand hovered near a gun prepared to match any sudden movements he might make.

"And you can tell your friend Dr. Emmerich that he should listen to Olivia and try and get a few hours of sleep. That's a good way to make mistakes. As for you, Snake…we'll have plenty of opportunities in the future to settle this the right way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He laughed menacingly before turning to walk away. At the doorway, he decided to finally offer a response.

"Why don't you ask Olivia."

* * *

"I told you, I'm fine."

"Then let me see it."

Snake reluctantly produced his hand and let Olivia unwrap the blood stained bandage from around it.

"Oh, boy" she said, "Snake, this is definitely more than nothing. How did this happen?"

"Let's just say getting into Ocelot's compound was easier than getting out of it. It didn't help that the whole place was on high alert."

"This is going to need suturing. It's a pretty deep laceration."

She disappeared for a moment and returned with a small, black kit in tow by a handle that was on the top of it.

She directed Snake to a chair and opened the kit, taking out everything she needed one by one.

"I could have done this myself." He said once she started.

"Yes, but you probably wouldn't have. With your body in it's current condition, you're going to have to learn to take injuries, even like this, more seriously."

Olivia worked like someone who was still in practice as a nurse rather that someone who hadn't been in nearly six years.

"I guess being a nurse is something that never leaves you."

"Well, not easily anyway. But, as long as I get to deal with the stubborn likes of you, I don't imagine any of it will go to waste."

"I'm afraid it comes with the territory."

"I'm sure it does."

When Olivia got midway in the suture, she tied it off. She steadied his hand and slowly positioned it to prepare to start a new one.

"What made you want to become a nurse?"

"As strange as it sounds, I believed that people were mostly good and I saw becoming a nurse as a way I could help some of those people."

"Do you still believe that? That people are good?"

She nodded immediately, "Yeah, I do. I believe it because I still see it in people. People like Hal...and you, Snake," she said and glanced at him to let him see in her eyes that she meant it.

"I've never been able to believe anything like that."

"I wouldn't expect you to. I imagine there's isn't much room for that kind of thinking in your field of work."

"Not really."

"There really isn't room for that kind of thinking in life these days. But, I guess after a few more run-ins with Ocelot, my views will begin to look more like yours."

"It took a lot more than a few run-ins with Ocelot to shape my views. Like having to betray people...and being betrayed."

Snake searched Olivia's face but it was blank.

"Be straight with me. Do you think I have something to do with Ocelot?" She allowed a short and uncomfortable beat to pass between them. "Let me save you the breath. I don't. I would never risk the safety or work of you and Hal."

"Can I trust that?"

"You've never needed my permission to do anything, Snake. Do what you want with it."

She quickly weaved the needle through a few more times before giving it a light tug and tying it off.

"You should be fully healed in about a week or so," she said wrapping the bandage around his hand. The nurse in her wouldn't let her take her personal feelings for him out on his health, "I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to not trust Ocelot."

He didn't realize Olivia had left until a few moments later when he looked up to see Otacon quickly closing the door behind him.

"There's something you need to hear."

* * *

Otacon punched the "ENTER" button on the keyboard and stood back as if he was waiting for it to explode. A second later, Snake heard his own voice, followed by Olivia's repeating the words they had said moments before.

"You recorded our conversation?" His tone was more surprised by Otacon than offended.

"Yes, but... Snake, Olivia's bugged." He finally said and stopped the recording.

"What?"

"I accidentally picked up the signal from some transmitter she's got on her while you guys were talking."

"So, she is--"

"No," Otacon interrupted him, "Olivia is a civilian and not some kind of a spy. I checked her out myself and the most involvement she's ever had with the government is when she filed her income taxes."

"Then how do you explain the transmitter?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll bet that the other point picking up that signal is Ocelot and that's a very big problem. It's how he knew about me reprogramming the virus and how he heard the conversation Olivia and I had while we were waiting on you to radio in."

"So, everything we've said around Olivia has been picked up by Ocelot," Snake said in an attempt to put it all into perspective for himself.

"I'm afraid so. But, there's more to it. Snake, I don't think Olivia _knows_ she's bugged."

Otacon didn't wait for Snake to respond.

"Ten months ago," he continued, "when Olivia was rescued, Mei Ling checked her thoroughly for injuries and she didn't find anything on her. Since then, she's been working with me one hundred percent of the time. I'll bet that transmitter is hidden somewhere that even Olivia doesn't know about."

"You're not making any sense."

"The bullet in Olivia's leg was never removed. How uncommon do you think a transmitter in the exact likeness of a bullet in every way is?"

"Not common enough."

Otacon took a deep breath in and made one last plea.

"Look, Snake, I know how this sounds but I believe Olivia. So even if you don't trust her, trust me."

* * *

_Since "The Goodbye Song" is so long, I split it into two parts. Be sure to read it. This doesn't end the way you think it does..._


	5. The Goodbye Song pt 2

**The Goodbye Song pt. 2**

"The bullet in my leg is really a transmitter?" It was the third time Olivia had repeated what Otacon had told her, but the first time she had said it aloud.

"Stuff like this is becoming more and more common with technology. As a matter of fact, technology like this was perfected in Russia about two years ago so, it really isn't as crazy as it sounds."

"Viruses that are programmed to kill specific people. Worldwide censorship by a group of men more powerful than the President. _That _is crazy. What I don't get is why me?"

"It probably wasn't hard to find out you had been involved with helping Snake," Otacon began, piecing it all together for himself for the first time as he talked, "and he knew we'd keep tabs on you afterwards to make sure you were okay. He also knew we'd bring you underground with us if we felt you were in danger."

"Is there anything he _didn't_ know, Hal?"

"Well, he probably didn't expect us to find out about the transmitter."

"That's not as comforting as I thought it would be."

"He probably didn't expect Raiden to show up, either."

"But he would have killed me if Raiden wouldn't have come."

"It was never his intention to kill you. You were no use to him dead. He just wanted to get our attention. He even recorded it and sent it to us to make sure we saw it."

"That seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to track you guys."

"Trouble?" Snake finally interjected, "You lived by yourself with no one for miles around. He couldn't have asked for a better backdrop."

Olivia wrapped her arms tightly around her midsection to hold herself up. The clearer everything became, the more lightheaded she felt. She braced herself against the wall with one hand and felt Snake's grip quickly wrap around her other arm.

"So he used me. He used me to know everything you guys were doing all this time."

"It wasn't your fault, Olivia," she looked up at Snake and wondered if he had felt as unconvinced by those words when she had said them to him.

"What happens now, Hal?" she asked.

"We disable the transmitter...somehow."

"We'll have to remove it."

As simple as the suggestion was, it was one that Otacon hadn't even considered because of the consequences.

"But, that's too dangerous," Otacon reminded her though, from her tone, he knew she hadn't forgotten.

"Why can't it just be removed?"

Snake alternated glances from Olivia to Otacon, waiting for someone to fill him in what they had apparently chosen not to before. Otacon finally volunteered.

"The bullet in Olivia's leg is too close to a major artery. Removing it would rupture that artery causing her to bleed to death in as little as seven minutes. It had never posed any sort of health problems, so, we never worried about it."

"Is there any way to go around it?"

"No. She might have a better chance having it removed by a doctor but, it's not a guarantee that one would even take a procedure like this on. Even so, it's not like we can just walk in and schedule a surgery at the local hospital."

"Hal, all the doctors these days are being trained by using VR. I bet after a few lessons, you could be even better than them."

Otacon shook his head.

"That's not realistic, Olivia. A procedure like this hasn't even been officially tested, you said that yourself. Just...just give me some time, and I can think of another way to disable the transmitter."

"Time is not something we have a lot of. The longer the transmitter is active, the longer Ocelot can track us. What about before? What about people surviving against the odds?"

"That was before we were talking about _me_ doing it!"

Otacon landed in the chair behind him from the reality of it suddenly slamming him all at once.

"I don't think I can do this," he confessed, looking her in the eyes when she knelt down in front of him.

"Right now, I need you to not think about me but about what has to been done."

"I can't…"

"Hal." She said firmly with her hands pushing lightly back on his shoulders. Olivia's green eyes had never looked the way they did at that moment to him. They pleaded with him to do the impossible and didn't except even the thought of him rejecting.

Otacon closed his eyes to break the stare and reopened them to the view of the floor.

"Okay." He barely controlled the words that came out of his own mouth. A sheet of ice permanently settled under his skin when he thought about what he had agreed to.

Olivia met with Snake's eyes who she had almost forgotten was in the room.

"This is suicide, Olivia," he said only loud enough for her to hear. Olivia quickly glanced back at Otacon, to verify them being out of earshot, and then back at Snake.

"So is not doing anything, Snake, and you know that."

* * *

Twenty-six. That was the number of times Otacon had successfully completed the VR training out the seventy-two times he had tried. Olivia had made it a point to tell him not to pay attention to how many times he completed it successfully but more to the structure of everything since he'd have more power in knowing where he was going than doing it successfully.

In the simulation, he only had to remove a green triangle that most likely represented something smaller than the bullet of a revolver. It had been conveniently nestled in a spot that posed no real harm to his virtual patient. When Otacon tried to set the safe, green little triangle to two millimeters away from a major artery, it spat it back at him as an "invalid placement of coordinates".

Olivia appeared next to him but he pretended to take greater interest in saving his patient. The way she smiled at him almost made him believe that it was just another day and that she was coming to sit in the chair next to him to begin working.

"How's it coming along?"

"I need more time."

"Hal, you've been doing this for two days straight. You could probably do it with your eyes closed."

"I'm not ready." The program buzzed loudly signifying he had failed the procedure again.

"Are you having second thoughts at all?"

"Second? I don't even remember having a first thought about this."

"Try not to think about it so much--"

"I'm not...getting my driver's license here. You're asking me to kill you, Olivia! Do you get that?" He squeezed his forehead between his palms. Olivia felt just as helpless as he looked. "First Wolf. Then Emma. Now...you."

"Hal..."

"I can't keep anyone alive." he continued, "I'm sorry, Olivia."

"I'm so sick of people apologizing!"

"Huh?"

"It was _my_ choice to help Snake. When I saw him lying there unconscious, I couldn't just leave him there. And maybe it would have been smarter to leave him there but you know what? I've never been that smart." Olivia lifted her glasses and wiped her palms across her eyes. "I'm not sorry about anything that has or will happen and neither should you."

"Please," he pleaded, "let me run some more tests. There may be another way, but I need some time..."

"We can't risk it. I can't risk it. If something were to happen to you or Snake because of me, I'd never forgive myself. Look, I can't imagine what this must be like for you but..." she cleared her throat steadied her voice, "but, this is your mission now, Hal. It's what has to be done."

"Olivia?"

"Let's just get this done quickly, okay? We do this tomorrow."

She silently promised herself that she'd let the storm of tears fighting to burst forward free if she could just make it out of the door first. She did.

Olivia knew she wasn't sobbing for herself. She never had before and even in her situation didn't see a need to start. Thinking about Otacon's face only made her chest ache. Part of her prayed that it would take the form of a massive heart attack and kill her in the most painful and instant way but somehow, she didn't think her luck would start to get any better now.

* * *

Olivia took a deep breath, more for Otacon than herself since he was beginning to look like he had forgotten how to. She sat up in the chair and turned her leg on its side in the chair it was propped on, exposing the area he would have to make the insertion point.

She looked back at Snake who had decided to hang back in the far corner of the room. She watched him stuff his hands in his pockets for lack of a better activity for them before turning back to Otacon.

"This isn't going to get any easier the longer I stall, is it?"

She shook her head before answering, "No."

Otacon steadied his hands as much as he could and carefully worked, glancing up at Olivia every so often. She mostly just nodded slightly to verify that she was fine and to urge him to keep going. It terrified him more than it comforted him that he recognized every bone, muscle, and tissue just as it had appeared to him in the simulation.

"The hardest part is over, Hal," she told him. He was visibly rattled by the sight of the actual bullet. Olivia had done a decent job of hiding the pain, but the fatigue that was beginning to set in was impossible to cover up. He suddenly froze when he realized the life that was beginning to leave her through her eyes. Until then, he had allowed part of himself to pretend he had missed the artery after all.

"What's wrong, Hal?"

"You're--"

"Fine," she finished, "Don't worry about me."

"I can see it."

"I need you to promise me something. As soon as you take out the bullet, leave and go destroy that thing."

"What?"

"I'll stay here with her, Otacon," Snake offered.

It was a closed discussion that Otacon could tell had never been open to him anyway. He looked back at Olivia.

"Why don't you want me here?"

"Just...just promise me, Hal. Please."

After the bullet was out, he quickly applied a bandage before he quietly left the room like he had been asked to.

"I've never hated myself more than I do right now," Olivia admitted when she heard the door close and Snake lock it soon after.

"He's a lot stronger than he looks."

"Maybe so. But, I'm not. I could kill myself if I wasn't already dying," She laughed gently at how wildly inappropriate the comment was. She surprised even herself that she could still have a sense of humor at the moment.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Yes," she responded, her voice less strong than Snake was used to hearing it, "you can stop asking questions and just once tell me what you're thinking about."

Olivia followed Snake with her eyes as he seated himself in a folding chair next to her. His impenetrable exterior no longer existed to her. He hadn't ever done anything to make himself seem vulnerable, it was just something that over time, she had learned to see past. "You don't deserve this." He finally said, but without looking at her.

"That means a lot coming from you. How'd the tests go?"

In the suddenness of the past few days, he had forgotten about the tests Otacon had run on him. Snake hadn't remembered collapsing but had remembered his eyes opening to Olivia's face. First scared and then immediately relieved.

"Why are you--"

"Hey, I still need to know how you are. Perhaps more than ever right now."

"I feel fine."

"That's not what I asked you, Snake." The silence that settled between them alarmed Olivia immediately.

"Snake? What is it?"

"It stopped working. The serum."

Olivia placed her hands over her mouth and closed her eyes. "No..."

"You did what you could."

Olivia's color had disappeared and her body looked too heavy for her. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Otacon said something about trying to get in touch with Naomi but, we don't even know where to begin looking. It could take months to find her."

"How long do you have?"

"A year. Maybe less. It's hard to tell. Olivia?"

Her head limply feel to one side. Snake reached out just in time for her body to fall into his arms. "Olivia!" He felt the sense of panic in his own voice. When she let out a low moan, he let out the breath he had unknowingly been holding and laid her lower half on the floor. Olivia opened her eyes slowly and looked up at him.

"Who's going to take the stitches out?" It sounded like babble to him but he decided to entertain the question anyway until his eyes happened to quickly sweep by his gauze wrapped hand around her shoulder.

"I'll manage," he reassured her in a tone he was sure she would use herself.

Snake felt the temperature in her body drop a considerable amount in a short period of time. Her deterioration was rapid.

"I feel like I should tell you something...about my life," she whispered through labored breaths, "But I can't think of anything."

"Her name was Meryl." Snake watched Olivia's shoulders move up and down slowly as she generated the strength to respond.

"Meryl...," she repeated, "the woman from your past."

"I met her on Shadow Moses Island. She moved with me to Alaska afterwards but, we soon went our separate ways. I haven't seen her in almost six years."

"She's alive?" Snake had never mentioned if she was or not and Olivia hadn't found it in herself to ever ask.

"Yes, she is."

Olivia smiled at the thought.

"I can tell that she still means a lot to you, Snake. I hope you see her again...one day..."

Her voice trailed off and Snake felt her shoulders wilt in his grip as the last breath in her body left.

He carefully lowered her to the ground and rose to his feet. He couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was he felt when he looked down at Olivia, who could have been easily mistaken for someone sleeping by anyone who hadn't known what had just happened.

Everything about leaving the room took a split second longer than he needed it to. The outside only became an option when he found himself walking toward the front door. He turned off his nanos. He didn't know where he was going and neither was Otacon.

* * *

The quietness of the room sent a low and constant ring through Otacon's ears but presented an overall calmness that kept him from turning around. He dropped hard to his knees next to Olivia's body. He touched her face and pushed back her hair, almost expecting her eyes to flutter open from a long nap.

"We both knew something was wrong when Snake collapsed...you were just the only one who could admit it. He doesn't have long. The serum. It...it stopped working. The FoxDie is active again and it might be even stronger now. Maybe I screwed something up, Olivia."

His body trembled with her in his arms. "What am I going to do when Snake...when Snake...I need you to tell me that everything is going to be alright. I can't remember that without you here."

He dug his face into her shoulder and allowed himself to unravel completely.

The thought of letting her go made him grip her even tighter to him. Her skin took on all the qualities of porcelain as he thumbed lightly over the scar on her face. The slight purplish tinge to it was the only thing that offset her otherwise translucent covering. It had appeared that way for a week now, a slightly infected irritation that Olivia hadn't worried herself with. Her own health was never as much of a concern to her as his and Snake's had been. The more he caressed it, the stranger the coloration became to him and for the first time in days, his mind felt like it was successfully processing the things around him again. But along with that came the realization that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

* * *

Snake returned to the the lab to the sound of something crashing. Something big.

Something big that shouldn't be crashing.

He drew his gun before continuing and followed the sound of the next thing he heard shatter which lead him to the area he had last seen Otacon in.

Crap. Otacon.

* * *

Snake let his gun round the corner before him, just as an unidentified glass object left Otacon's hands to go sailing into wall, falling into umpteen pieces next to a turned over bookshelf.

"What's wrong with you?!" Snake asked, grabbing him by the shoulders. He took a moment to notice the collection of turned over tables, broken glass, and random paper and electronic debris that covered the floor of the room. A small tornado wouldn't have done nearly as much damage as Otacon had but he was happy it had been him and not anyone else.

"I...I killed her, Snake." His sudden calmness was eerie, but Snake kept a firm grip on him.

"We did the only thing we could..."

"No." Otacon opened up his hand in front of him and Snake loosened this hold, "It's not the transmitter. It's not the goddamn transmitter!"

Otacon pitched the revolver bullet hard to the wall on the opposite side of the room and then collapsed to his knees into a sobbing heap.

"What does that mean?" Snake demanded harshly.

"Olivia didn't have to die..."

Snake reacted immediately by pulling Otacon up and pinning him by the collar of his lab coat to the nearest wall. Otacon reeled momentarily from the force of his head bouncing off it.

"What in the hell just happened, Otacon?!"

Snake was now growling at him.

"Oww! Snake—"

"I thought you knew what you were doing!"

"This is all my fault. I should have tried harder. I could have saved her."

Snake caught a hold of his anger and let him free of his grasp before Otacon continued.

"She trusted me. She believed everything I said about that bullet being the transmitter. How could I be so stupid?"

"So, there was no transmitter?"

"No, there was one." Otacon reached into his lab coat pocket and gave Snake the contents of his hand. "A few days ago, I noticed there was an infection forming underneath the scar tissue on Olivia's face. I knew that wasn't possible unless something was there that wasn't supposed to be but, it didn't register with me with everything going on."

The small, square chip looked barely big enough to be real much less be a transmitter.

"How'd it get in her face?"

"It had to be embedded while Olivia was receiving the injury that resulted in the scar in the first place. It's been inactive for a few days now, probably something Ocelot did when he realized we knew about it. That's why the frequency scans we ran before wouldn't pick it up."

"So, the chip was somewhere on the shovel when it touched her face?"

"That's the first time I've ever heard of anything like that, too", Otacon responded, "But, to be set in as far and cleanly as it was, that's the only way it could have happened," he paused, and then added, "But then again, what the hell do I know?"

"Otacon..."

"She was so upset about Ocelot using her...and she didn't want to wait for me to run more tests. Damn!"

His fist hit the wall as if he was trying to make it feel the same way he did.

"Olivia had a mind of her own, and that's not your fault. It's no one's. Look, Otacon, Ocelot's going to get what's coming to him...but I need you to pull yourself together."

Otacon took his glasses off and combed his hand through his brown hair while Snake examined the chip again. He lifted his head when he felt Snake's attention turn back to him.

"Okay," he replied, "What do you need me to do?"

"This chip. Can you disable it permanently?"

"Already done."

"Is there any way you can find out where and who Ocelot got this from?

"C'mon, Snake. You know me. I can have it by morning."

The hope in his words hadn't quite reached his tone yet. Snake gave him one last pat on the shoulder after giving the chip back to him and left.

Looking around provided Otacon his first chance to see the destruction he had caused and now, barely remembered doing. He knocked off a few pieces of glass debris from a chair and fell back into it. His mind drifted to how the small pieces of glass left in the chair poking him in his thigh would never come out. At the moment, it seemed too trivial to think about for too long, but just enough to keep the thoughts of having to deal with the chip at bay for a second more.

The structure of the chip proved to be a bit more complex than it appeared and made Otacon lengthen the few minutes he had originally set aside to examine it. A warning chime from the computer rang out and loud enough to bring Snake back into the room. He waited and watched Otacon click around the computer screen for a moment before speaking.

"What is it, Otacon?"

"It's Ocelot," he replied, keeping his gaze on the screen, "he's heading towards the Middle East."

* * *

_Well, this is the official end of the "Overpoured" story. Thank you to all who read it and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it! Hopefully, it'll go as smoothly into MGS4 as I'm hoping it will. If you by some chance started with this part, go back and read the other parts. It'll all make sense, I promise.--Andi Mack_


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